Assessment of Library Services in Pediatric Hospitals in the United States and Canada

Objectives: The aim of this project was to examine the scope of library services in pediatric hospitals in the United States and Canada. The study sought to determine how library services at these hospitals compared on 20 specific metrics and to see if having a U.S. News and World Report designation or Magnet Accreditation influenced support or services. This expands the research of a 2021 survey by authors involved with this study which focused on pediatric hospitals in the southeast United States.

Methods: In October 2022, the authors compiled a list of pediatric hospital librarians using directories of the Children's Hospital Association, the MLA Pediatric Librarians Caucus, the MLA Hospital Library Caucus, and DOCLINE libraries. These 149 librarians received email invitations to participate in the research project and a link to a REDCap survey. In November 2022, survey reminder messages were sent to the electronic mail lists of both the Hospital Library Caucus and the Pediatric Librarians Caucus. The team reviewed the combined list of responses to limit responses to single entries from individual facilities. The survey asked respondents to identify their hospital's size and organizational structure, the library's predominant user groups, scope of library services, databases provided, staffing, fiscal operations, and library space allocations.

Results: After eliminating duplicate responses, 54 remained (36% response rate). Most (85%, n=46) facilities were teaching organizations, 96% (n=52) had residency or fellowship programs, 61% (n=33) U.S. News designation, and 65% (n=35) held Magnet Accreditation. Staff size varied: 35% (n=19) were solo librarians, another 22% (n=12) reported 2 FTE, and 30% (n=16) had 3-5 FTE staff. Although 83% (n=45) of study participants were members of a national professional association, 57% (n=31) lacked AHIP certification. While clinical staff made up the primary patron group, 54% of users (n=29) were faculty. Patients and families were library users for 35% (n=19) of the respondents.

Conclusions: Pediatric hospital libraries provide a full range of medical library services with small staff sizes and modest budgets. The number of mediated, topic-focused searches does not correlate to the number of FTEs or number of ILLs exchanged. Responses to the four open-ended questions reveal that librarians are working at their fullest capacity, generally feel supported, and would like to expand services and resources. The authors need to review the data, but at this time it can be said that almost all hospitals have some institutional motivation to provide library staff. Additionally, the responding hospitals’ data needs to be compared to the MLA Hospital Library Standards and Canadian Health Libraries Association Standards to see what insights that can provide..